Certain elongated steel parts, such as small diameter tubes, are cold worked to precision tolerances by a process known as drawing. The drawing process involves pulling the elongated part through a die or series of drawings dies wherein its diameter is reduced to a desired dimension. In order to facilitate the drawing process, the parts are coated with a lubricant to prevent binding and wear in the drawing die. Because many drawing lubricants do not adhere well to the metal surface of the parts to be drawn, it is sometimes necessary to apply a coating to the surface of the steel part which acts as a carrier for the drawing lubricant. One such coating is chlorinated rubber and another is chlorinated paraffin. Such compounds are applied to the metal parts in solution form using an aromatic hydrocarbon solvent such as toluene. The chlorinated rubber or chlorinated paraffin coatings adhere tenaciously to the surface of the metal parts and must be removed after the drawing process is completed.
Hitherto, a chlorinated solvent such as trichloroethylene (TCE) was used to remove the chlorinated rubber and chlorinated paraffin coatings from the elongated metal parts. Chlorinated solvents such as TCE are highly toxic are very difficult to dispose of in an environmentally safe manner. Consequently, it has become highly desirable to have an environmentally safe and easy to use method for cleaning chlorinated rubber or chlorinated paraffin coatings from elongated metal parts after they have been drawn to a desired size. Moreover, since such parts are usually handled in bundles, any such process should be capable of performing such cleaning on a substantial number of pieces in bundles.